Where to live between Marlboro, MA and Hartford, CT (Boston: job transfer, good schools)

[Habibe]

I work in Marlboro, MA and my husband will be relocating to Hartford, CT. We have a 2 year old and are looking to move to a family oriented town that would be between our two working cities. Preferably in Mass. Any town ideas?

[holden125]

Those places are about 75-80 miles apart so you'd really want to go halfway or so to avoid making either commute too long. You'd also want to keep it close to the highway. I don't know the area all that well except to pass through but I understand Sturbridge and Charlton are nice.

Anything out there is going to be more on the rural side, I couldn't tell you which places are more family-oriented. Oxford is a little closer to Marlboro/Boston than to Hartford, but there's more traffic going that way anyway and I hear it's a pretty good town for young families.

[rdsox101]

Providence, RI. One of the most underated cities in the East.

[FellsMom]

Shrewsbury, Westborough, or Southborough are good options not too far from Marlborough. All of them have good schools and easy access to Rt. 90, which will take you to Rt. 84 and Hartford. I have noticed that families often live near Worcester to accommodate two carrees if one of the jobs is in Hartford.

[Concepts]

Charlton and Sturbridge are good suggestions....home prices (and rents) are much much more reasonable than anything East of Worcester. Sturbridge in particular is an "up and coming" town. I will tell you that Shrewsbury Westborough and Southboro prices are sky high. And are at least an hour from Hartford.

[MammaLakn]

I 3rd the Sturbridge area I think its ideal in your situation, easy access to I-84/I-90. My dh commuted to Marlborough. I also agree with it being a great area for families. Housing is affordable (by MA standards anyway) and the schools are excellent. We lived there from 2002 - 2007 and were happy The cold and a job transfer sent us south. If you have to live where its cold, Sturbrige aint a bad place to be!

[westender]

Another vote for Sturbridge. Holland and Brimfield are also possibilities. You can get to downtown Hartford in one hour easily, as traffic from the east is not as bad as traffic from the west into Hartford. Marlborough is less than one hour, as you exit the Mass Pike at 495 before the usual traffic jams approaching Boston.

Providence is absolutely too far to commute to Hartford. 90 minutes at least.
There are some towns on the CT side of the border to consider as well, but you'd want to weigh the (property) tax considerations. MA and CT income tax rates are quite close.

[NatefromRI]

I also agree that Providence (or pretty much anywhere in RI except for maybe Foster or Glocester) would be too far to commute daily (although in fairness, a 1.5 hour commute in your car is similar time-wise to what many people from RI do, commute to Boston via the T from S. Attleboro and driving to S. Attleboro from Providence to catch it). But more importantly, I would recommend not moving to RI currently due to the current local economic situation there (and I lived there for 34 years until I moved to TX two years ago). Love the beauty of RI, but the economic realities of that state are very sad right now and local taxes are going up due to the fact that the state is cutting budgets to cities/towns in order to close a serious state deficit).

We're thinking about possibly going back to New England in a few years. Massachusetts or Connecticut would probably be better choices for your circumstances (and in fact, we'd also be looking for somewhere between Marlboro, MA, Smithfield, RI Cranston, RI and New Britain, CT). We're thinking maybe Oxford, MA or Sturbridge, MA.